Sacred Music Notre Dame, the Singing Irish of Sacred Music at Notre Dame, members from the Notre Dame Children's Liturgical Choir, and the Sacred Music Festival Orchestra perform Haydn's The Creation (1798). Drawing from the books of Genesis, Psalms, and John Milton's epic Paradise Lost to represent the six days of creation, Haydn was inspired to compose his first oratorio, now an iconic Western masterwork, after a Handel festival including Messiah. His colorful, imaginative, and tremendously satisfying choruses are favorites among choral singers and music lovers.
The soloists personify the angels Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael, who narrate and comment on the six days, as well as Adam and Eve. Celestial beauty from the first miraculous "Let there be light" and the first rising of the sun, elemental nature like lightning, thunder, hail, and snow, the creation of beasts and plants, and above all, the overture, the famous depiction of the chaos before the creation come to us through rapturous sequences of arias and choruses contemplating the natural beauty of the world around us.
Artists
The Singing Irish
Notre Dame Children's Choir
Sacred Music at Notre Dame Festival Orchestra
Mark Doerries, conductor